2P Contemporary Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of 30 lx an exhibition of new work by Hong Kong-based French artist Virgile Simon Bertrand.

30 lx or ‘30 lux’ is the minimum light intensity required by the Code of Practice for the Provision of Means of Escape. Couched in terms of “minimums” and “not less thans” the Code delineates a matrix of measurements and light levels, distances and configurations that dictate the form and composition of these compulsory escape routes. Constructed using low cost, low maintenance materials, devoid of any ornamentation, these functional architectural elements are perhaps the purest examples of entropic architecture, consciously created without regard to aesthetics. Virgile Simon Bertrand’s photographic studies, as minimal as they are elegant, draw attention to an inadvertent phenomenon, how despite the common genesis of these architectural features, each example offers subtle but surprising structural variations, creating a formal vocabulary. Bertrand’s studies reveal the dualities of such places:- ubiquitous but invisible; accessible to the public yet isolated and unvisited, immutable and individual.

Bertrand studied Applied Arts at Ecole Boulle (1988 - 1991, Paris), Graphic Design at Ecole Duperré (Paris) and Photography at the Ecole Nationale de la Photographie (1993, Arles). He began his career assisting Magnum photographer Abbas and working as a photographer for the Opéra National de Paris. After completing his National Service at the Service Photographique des Armées, Bertrand moved to Asia, establishing a successful commercial practice. His work has been exhibited in Taipei, Hong Kong, Paris, Arles and in London in the 2008 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition at The National Portrait Gallery. Bertrand was a finalist in the Architectural Category of the 2009 Hasselblad Masters Competition. In 2009 a retrospective of Bertrand’s work under the title Proxemics was held at Artistree, and was selected as one of the best exhibitions of 2009 by the South China Morning Post.